AIA Rochester Recognizes Foodlink’s Expanded Community Farm with Community Impact Award

On June 18, the Rochester chapter of The American Institute of Architects (AIA Rochester) recognized Foodlink’s community farm expansion with the Community Impact Award at its annual design awards celebration. Erdman Anthony was part of the SWBR-led architectural and engineering (A/E) design team that handled the expansion. SWBR provided architectural, structural, and civil design, along with RPKLA providing landscape architecture, and JM Davidson Engineering providing stormwater design. Hamilton Stern Construction was the general contractor, and Erdman Anthony provided mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) design for the project.

Foodlink, a Rochester-based food bank that serves as the hub of the emergency food system across a 10-county service area, completed the expansion of its Lexington Avenue Community Farm in 2025. The 2.3-acre urban farm includes the 2,800-square-foot Edible Education Center; a 3,000-square-foot greenhouse; an apiary; an orchard; and over 220 raised beds. The expansion provides programming that educates community members on nutrition and the local food system, including how food is grown and harvested, with a focus on program participants’ culturally relevant foodways.

The farm’s capital improvement project invested $2 million in the neighborhood and supports the organization’s mission to fight hunger and food insecurity by growing the food bank’s reach and involvement. The surrounding neighborhood and the entire City of Rochester are reaping the benefits. The expanded farm also supports the organization’s mobile curbside market that brings fresh food into Rochester neighborhoods that lack food markets.

Erdman Anthony provided survey services to document the existing farm and the five adjacent lots Foodlink bought for this expansion. The firm also provided MEP design for the new building, including new air-handling units; a kitchen-hood and associated exhaust system; electric, water, and gas utilities for the greenhouse; plumbing design for the new kitchen and bathrooms; the electrical design for the new electrical distribution panels for general power and power for the MEP equipment; and the lighting design for the new parking lot and drive aisles.

A separate phase of Foodlink’s capital improvement project involved constructing a new cooled receiving area and expanding the cooler at its Mount Read Boulevard distribution center. For that project, Erdman Anthony provided design for a 60-ton refrigeration system as well as design for lighting, plumbing, fire protection, and HVAC systems.

Foodlink’s community farm expansion and improvements to its distribution center were also recently recognized with the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) Out-of-the-Box Award for inventive approaches that address pressing challenges in new ways.

Learn more about Foodlink’s expansion here.

Learn more about how to support Foodlink here.